SIR WALTER SCOTT ON PRUSSIANS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 129, 7 January 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

SIR WALTER SCOTT ON PRUSSIANS.

A writer in the Spectator recalls Sit Walter Scott's impressions of the Prussian character, received in ii.s v:sit to franco and Belgium immed:«>-,e.v sifie! the battle of Waterloo. The were then, of ionise, our allies, and Seott was warmly welcomed by Blticher. He should therefore have been prejudiced in their favour, and this makes his account the more significant. Writing to Cue Duke of Hueclench from Picardy. in August. 1815, lie says: -"As for the Prussians, a partv of cavalry diirng at our hotel at .Mens ate and drank of the best the poor devils had left to give, called for their horse-, and laughed in the hue of the landlord when h e offered hid bill, telling lisin they would pay as they came back. The English, they say, have always paid honourably, and upon these they indemnify themselves." Again, in a letter to his friend .Joanna Baillie, he draws a picture which history has simply repeated and multiplied in the present war : 'Most oi t!u cnatoaux there the Prussians- are quartered are what is technically called lumped—that is to s,iv. plundered out and out. In the lino ci!;i''\iu ol Montmorency, lor instance, ihe most splendid apartment-, highly ornamented' with gilding and carving, were converted into barracks for the dirtiest and mo-t scavage-look-ing Hussars I have ever seen. Imagine tho work the.se fellows made with velvet hangings and embroidery. I sawone liag""iio!ing her cam]) kettle with part ol' a picture frame: the picture itsell' had probably gone to Prussia." These and many other pictures are to be found in Scott'.- little-remember-ed volume. "Paul's Letters to In- Kinsfolk."